


When Everything Becomes Too Much

by EchoShimmer



Series: Wumptober 2020 [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Attempted Kidnapping, Depressed Tim Drake, Gen, Held at Gunpoint, Hostage Situations, Hurt No Comfort, Sad Tim Drake, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake-centric, Tim is passively suicidal, wumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26799982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoShimmer/pseuds/EchoShimmer
Summary: Tim doesn't know how he always ends up in these situations. He's kind of past caring at this point.
Series: Wumptober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948924
Comments: 14
Kudos: 272





	When Everything Becomes Too Much

**Author's Note:**

> Mind the tags on this one guys. The base concept popped into my mind a couple months ago and Wumptober gave me the excuse to write it, and it sort of spiraled downhill from there.

Wind buffeted through Tim’s hair, the blades of the helicopter circling the top of Wayne Tower and giving those who stood there a good approximation of what it would feel like to stand in the middle of a tornado. The force of the wind made it hard to stand, not helped at all by the awkward positioning that Tim was currently being forced into. Voices shouted, both from the police officers staked out on surrounding buildings and the group of nine people currently surrounding Tim. The eyes of the public, both from the people gathered around to watch in person and the ones he knew would be behind the multitude of watching camera lenses, seemed to burn into Tim’s skin.

It was almost as physically tangible of a sensation as the chill of the gun’s muzzle currently digging into Tim’s temple.

This situation had been nowhere near on the list of Tim’s possible outcomes after being forced to cut off funds to a group of WE researchers earlier this week. They had forced Tim’s hand, practically, when they were caught stealing Wayne Enterprises designs and distributing them on the black market. Tim had first become suspicious that something was amiss when he saw some eerily familiar gadgets on the streets in the hands of Red Robin’s enemies. That line of questioning had led him towards the ten R&D workers behind the whole operation. 

Tim had been left no choice but to launch an investigation into their work, knowing that the resulting extra workload because of the inquiry would be more than enough to punish Tim himself along with the group responsible. Between that, a random uptick in crime rates in Red Robin’s territory, and a big project due in one of his online college classes, Tim’s week had, sure enough, been absolutely as miserable as he had expected.

What Tim hadn’t expected was for the whole group of disgruntled workers to sneak into the building armed with their (somehow still active) employee ID chips and semi-automatics with the intent of taking the man- boy- they saw as responsible hostage.

They had been smart about the whole operation, Tim had to admit. They had timed the operation to take place at the very end of the work week, when most of the buildings employees would be long gone but when the company's young, workaholic CEO would be finishing up his final reports before finally clocking out for the night. Their special access ID’s still being valid allowed them entrance through a side door with very little monitoring, a chink in the proverbial armor. By the time Tim’s system of cameras had flagged the guns and sent him an alert, they had already reached the upper floor where Tim was all but alone.

Tim had hardly had time to trigger the emergency alert before his office door had slammed open, panes of glass shattering as multiple voices shouted at him to put his hands above his head and stand away from the desk, to hand over his phone and any other electronics. 

(The situation itself, having multiple guns trained on him, was one that was all too familiar to Tim. This was every other night for a vigilante. But he  _ wasn’t _ a vigilante here, he wasn’t wearing any of the armor, he didn’t have any of the weapons-)

Tim Drake-Wayne, Wayne Enterprises’ teenage CEO, complied with the commands.

He had been dragged out into the hallway, the masked kidnappers that Tim had already managed to identify at that point throwing out snatches of details about their plan. That they were going to sneak out quickly the way they had entered, to where the tenth member of their little group was waiting with a van. 

Tim could fill in the rest of the blanks for their plan just by their tone of voice and Gotham’s crime statistics. They would move him to the secondary location, send out calls to his family in order to get a ransom of some sort. Probably money, maybe materials or designs that they had been cut off from when Tim had fired them. In the meantime, they would probably hurt him, an attempt at torturing more information out of the insolent teenager who dared cross them, but they wouldn’t kill him. 

At least, not unless they were backed too far into a corner by a situation they hadn’t thought to prepare for. 

That needed push had arrived quickly in the form of Wayne Enterprises security, sweeping in from the vague direction of the main elevators as the kidnappers waited in a huddle by the back ones. They had all panicked, at least five of the nine instantly training their guns more pointedly towards Tim and shouting at the security to stand down. There was a rather tense standoff in the seconds it took the elevator to finally arrive. As soon as the doors dinged open the group backed inside, Tim pulled in last to continue dissuading fire from the distressed night shift security guards who were currently shouting into their radios.

The plan had changed then, in the face of the kidnapping attempt being discovered. The collective group was smart enough to realize that now that they were discovered their escape route would be cut off. They couldn’t possibly get back down to the ground floor. Staying in the building left too many openings for the many cameras and security guards to take control of the situation quickly. So naturally, instead of just giving up due to the insurmountable circumstances, Tim’s kidnapping attempt had somehow turned into the most publicized hostage situation of the century, right on the top of the tallest building in Gotham city.

So here Tim was, the prime witness to the action as the standoff dragged on. The height of the building made it near impossible for the police to get a clear view of the situation besides from the circling helicopter. They were incredibly hesitant to make any move that could set off the already twitchy hostage-takers when the life of one of the city's most famous people was on the line. 

The hostage-takers didn’t make anything simpler, keeping multiple of the semi-automatics trained on their hostage CEO at all times for added assurance that the police couldn’t just take out the guy holding Tim and storm the roof. They were nervous, and a bit jumpy, but they also knew that if they played their cards right they could still get what they wanted. 

Personally, Tim was almost entirely focused on staying calm. He had to not struggle, to act compliantly, not giving them any reason to panic further. Scared, inexperienced criminals were the most dangerous, the most likely to squeeze the trigger without fully intending to. 

Tim knew these facts like the back of his hand, because he had seen it himself countless times. None of this was new. Sitting here now, he could think of more than ten different ways that Red Robin could use to get out of this hold and turn the tables. But he couldn’t. Tim Drake-Wayne didn’t know how to disarm a gunman, and certainly didn’t know how to dodge the multiple shots that would follow an attempted escape. He had been backed into a corner right alongside his kidnappers.

There were hundreds of eyes on him at the moment, thousands once you took into account the cameras that were no doubt streaming the breaking news from down below and the one that was doubtlessly locked onto the rooftop from the helicopter. Tim couldn’t be Red Robin right now. He couldn't act. Not without giving away everything.

Chances are, at this point, that the GCPD was really banking on some Bat intervention to sweep in and sort things out, especially now that the sun was officially below the horizon. But Tim realized all too well that Batman would not be coming.

The hostage-takers had, multiple times now, asked specifically to talk directly to Bruce Wayne, wanting to deal with the man directly while negotiating the details of their ransom. There was no way that Bruce hadn’t been contacted already. Chances were that the GCPD would have dispatched officers to the Manor to talk to him in person, give him updates on the situation, maybe even escort him here if it was decided as the best course of action. Bruce was forced under the microscope by this situation just as much as Tim was. Batman would not be coming anytime soon. Robin would likely be similarly held up, even as the mere thought of Tim’s youngest brother staging a solo rescue made Tim feel like laughing hysterically. If anything, Tim thought Damian was more likely to just sit back and watch these people shoot him, considering the handful of interactions they had had since Tim’s return to Gotham.

Dick, Nightwing, would probably have wanted to help despite the fact that the two “brothers” had hardly talked at all over the last few months, but it was just Tim’s luck that the older man had happened to choose this week to return to Bludhaven for the first time since Bruce’s disappearance. Nightwing wasn’t slated to return to Gotham for at least another few hours, and the drive alone would be too long. He wouldn’t make it in time.

Cass was even further away, clear on the other side of the world, having yet to finish off the last of her caseload in Hong Kong before returning home. There had been no reason for her to rush through it at the time. Too late for that now.

The Titans were currently off in space, a mission that Tim had originally been planning to join them on for some much needed time away from everything. It was a big one, too, with some major Justice League members tagging along to ensure success if things went sideways. Tim had been excited. But then a group of employees had been caught breaking policy and had forced the start of a company-wide investigation to ensure that they were the only ones, and Tim had been all but buried in paperwork as a result, plans thwarted by his responsibilities yet again. Ah, the irony.

Tim couldn’t think of anyone else who might be close enough.

There would be no one coming.

Tim should be a lot more concerned about this, probably. He should be using his oh-so-brilliant brain to find that one in a million solution to ensure his safety without giving anything away. But Tim was so  _ tired _ . He hadn’t slept more than five hours over the past four days, dealing with the fallout from the investigation, and his normal CEO duties, and his online college work, and his patrols as Red Robin.

The Titans had been out of contact range for days now, and he had barely said more than a hello to any of the Waynes in weeks, and Tim was just. He’s only  _ seventeen _ . He was so tired. He didn’t think that he could fight all of this, anymore. He couldn't handle everything by himself, and this was just one task too many.

So Tim just stood on the rooftop, buffeted by the cold wind, listening to the sounds of shouting and ignoring the pressure of the gun on his temple, and he let his eyes slide closed. This situation would come to an end without his intervention, one way or another.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp... I've got no excuse but myself for this one. See y'all tomorrow for day 4!


End file.
